ahh i see .. fair enough. seems like there has been a large run on bruce lee threads in the past few months or so i was just trying to keep the count below 10. =)
Remember that bruce Lee likes all martial arts but thinks they have their limits, but JKD is made to have its limits stretched all the time.
There is absolutely no doubt that Bruce Lee was a talented guy but I think we need to maintain a sense of perspective here. Bruce was very good, he was very famous, but he was also very young. He was only 33 when he died. There have been, and still are, many more martial artists that may be less famous but have lived a lot longer and learned a lot more than Bruce, unforunately, was able to. Quoting Bruce Lee is great, like I say he was obviously a very talented bloke, but I think it's also really important to investigate what other martial artists have written too.
So how many martial arts did Bruce Lee debunk by kicking the living fecies out of their exponents? Really ... the guy was bloody good at what he did but with my limited knowledge on the guy (NB. Disclaimer on my limited knowledge of Bruce Lee), I'm not aware that he really prooved much. He looked good in films, wrote his theories and his practice down but did he really proove the combat aspects with sufficient quantities against other good martial arts stylists. The Gracies certainly have, did he? If so, when, where and who? Cheers J
Is this the interview you guys are talking about per chance? http://daojia.free.fr/videos/interview_brucelee.rm Cheers J
Excuse me for bumping this crusty thread, but I think karate has improved significantly since the 70s. Check out www.iainabernethy.com
And for anyone who said that the gracies should revamp Karate, isn't that kind of what Oyama did with Kyokushinkai?
Everyone who has something to sell does it by rubbishing the previous iteration. "Old Ariel Automatic used to leave stains on your washing, but new Ariel Automatic takes off 100% of dirt" - but surely just a few weeks ago they were saying Old Ariel Automatic was 100% effective! People use exactly the same methods in MA marketing. "Old karate only defeated 40% of thugs - my new karate defeats 100%" - it's all marketing and self promotion. Of course there's probably some truth in what he says - if he travelled the world cross-training and fighting all-comers, he probably is as hard as you like - but that's a reflection of him as a person rather than a guarantee of his style.
i agree wholeheartedly... i thought it was just a funny interview... especially all the stuff about oyama... who always seems to be surrounded by sycofancy and all that...
I think lee was referring to the way karate movements are very clear cut and defined and there is a lot of emphasis on completing each movement before starting another. In Kung Fut his isn't always so. However I think Lee looked upon all arts with an equal eye seeing that none truely fully met the full potential it could have and hence developed JKD which is more of a philosophy than an art
Hi all, or y'all, I am from Ky But anyway here's my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions. I feel that Mr. Lee's ultimate advice about the martial arts, be it Shotokan, or Gracie ju jitsu (sorry if misspelled) is that we are all individuals and that something good can be learned from everything. Learn all you can, keep the good stuff throw the garbage out! Only you can determine what's garbage and what's good stuff, one man's garbage is another's treasure. Just as a side note none of the above is my own work, however I have no idea where any of the referance work would be, and it is all in my own words!
Bruce Lee was a remarkable athlete, blindingly fast! However, some of the things he said don't make sense - the "Water Margin" quotes along the lines of "your body is like the water flowing through a mountain stream; look to the stars and you'll see where you begin". (I made those up, but you get the general drift. Maybe it's the translation into English, I don't know.) I think the comment about karate is that it is more direct and snappy, whereas his style was more flowing. I don't think you can say either is right or wrong - a fist moving in a straight line fom A to B would seem the most efficient movement, but a swinging circular punch would carry more force. I do karate and am glad of it, but I am under no illusions that that means I could beat anybody from any other MA in any circumstance. That would be really dumb. Following that logic, I did try out at Judo, but injured myself twice and accepted that perhaps it's not for me. Generally speaking, I find the "my style is better than yours" mentality a bit silly anyway.
